Essential Oils for Hormonal Acne

They say beauty is only skin deep, but it’s hard to believe in that when you’ve got acne. The hard thing to remember is that you’re not alone in this! In fact, it’s estimated that up to 90 percent of people will suffer from acne in their teens due to turbulent hormonal changes.

However, many people now find themselves dealing with adult acne, something that hasn’t been a prevalent issue until now. As we become more and more exposed to environmental toxins, GMOs, and hormone disrupting chemicals, it’s no wonder the instances of adult hormonal acne has increased.

Aside from rebalancing the body from the inside by cleansing the liver, increasing lymphatic circulation, and clearing our elimination pathways, it’s good to treat hormonal acne from the outside as well.

Why Use Essential Oils for Hormonal Acne?

Essential oils offer a potent way to manage hormonal acne in a way that works amazingly well in tandem with internal treatments.

Acne is a multifactorial condition that requires an integrated therapeutic approach in order to control and finally clear it. Essential oils can really help keep blemishes at bay by killing acne causing bacteria, improving the integrity of the acid mantle, and reconditioning the skin.

Essential Oils for Hormonal Acne

One of the first things you want to do when healing existing acne and preventing new breakouts is choosing the right essential oils for the job as well as a suitable carrier oil to dilute them.

Choosing a carrier oil can be tricky since they largely depend on the condition of the outer-most layer of the skin. This is why some oils work some people and not work for others. The skin may be dry, dehydrated, oily, combination… some even have a mix of these conditions.

The essential oils in this blend reduce inflammation and discoloration, promote healing, and begin correcting and rebalancing sebum production.

To Use –

On freshly cleansed skin, apply 3-5 drops of healing serum to the face, concentrating on affected areas. Allow the serum to soak in for 5 minutes and then dab away any excess. Repeat this routine every morning for two weeks.

This blend gives you a powerful punch with carrot seed essential oil that renews, rejuvenates, and restores the skin while you sleep. The healing power of rose essential oil smooths out the skin’s texture while reducing redness and fine lines. The Roman Chamomile heals existing acne, reduces hyperpigmentation, and replenishes the acid mantle.

Use for 2 weeks at night.

Essential Oils for Healing Existing Hormonal Acne

Now that your sebum is beginning to balance, it’s time to fight infection and reduce acne-causing bacteria on the skin.

After applying the Skin Balancing Toner, gently massage a few drops of the Infection Fighting Acne Treatment Serum on affected areas. Dab off any excess after 5 minutes with a clean tissue.

This blend has amazing antibacterial properties that penetrate deep into the skin. Thyme is known to be just as effective as benzoyl peroxide as killing acne causing bacteria and drying up blemishes without the side effects. Clove essential oil is highly antibacterial and helps keep bacteria from replicating while the eucalyptus helps keep new blemishes at bay. The lavender in this blend helps calm the skin and reduce redness.

After applying the toner, gently massage the Blemish Fighting Night Serum onto affected areas. Let it sit for 5 minutes and blot away any excess with a clean tissue.

Repeat for 2 weeks at night.

Essential Oils for Repairing Skin Damaged by Acne

Now is the final step and you may be thinking “My skin looks so much better now! I don’t need to keep going with treatment!”. Well, continue you must for another 2 weeks if you want to fully restore your skin and heal up any remaining scarring and hyperpigmentation. Just because your hormonal acne has subsided doesn’t mean it can’t come back with a vengeance.

After cleansing, apply the Skin Balancing Toner. Then apply the below serums as needed.

Once you have applied the toner, gentle massage a few drops of the Daytime Repair serum on any areas with scarring, uneven skin tone, and hyperpigmentation. Allow the serum to soak in for 5 minutes, the blot away the excess.

After applying the toner, gently massage a few drops of the Nightime Repair Serum all over the face, concentrating on affected areas where there is discoloration and scarring. Allow to sit for 5 minutes, then blot.

After the 6 weeks are up, continue using the Skin Balancing Toner after cleansing morning and night.

For upkeep using essential oils for hormonal acne control, use the following blend during the day:

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I’m going through menopause and with hormone replacement cream my face has gone crazy! My normal cleanser is Cerave’ with salicylic acidbut I don’t have a moisturizer. Should I keep using this cleanser?

I was looking for something to help me with my oily skin when i happened upon this post. I’ve just turned 47 and my skin is not good and has never been. I’ve been struggling with acne my entire life. Im getting ready to mix up the first serum and and try it out. Thank you for this post.

Hi! Quick question: do you continue to use your other skincare items, such as serums and moisturizers? Or do you only use the oil? Also, if you do continue to use regular skincare items, where does the oil fall in a regimen?

I use a vitamin C serum nightly and will sometimes use an AHA mask (1-2 times per month) if I feel like my skin is getting rough and patchy. Using the mask shouldn’t affect the essential oils, so you should be fine there!

Hi Tash! This is such precise information! And your article on hormonal acne.. I am sure half my problems are already solved! 🙂
I just wanted to know, what can I substitute for Yarrow and Myrrh? Also, can I substitute German Chamomile for Roman..? Since I can’t find the same in my area.
Also, can I just add few drops of other oils also to the mixes where they aren’t mentioned? Example Tea tree/Neem/Juniper/ Eucalyptus to the very first serum mentioned above?
Appreciate your help. Thanks!

For Myrrh essential oil, you can substitute with rosewood or frankincense. For yarrow essential oil, you substitute with roman chamomile or ylang ylang (though ylang ylang smells VERy strong so use maybe one drop only). For german chamomile you can substitute with roman chamomile 🙂 And yes, you can certainly add other oils! I suggest checking out this blog post for the max dilutions, but I think you’d be fine with adding maybe 2-3 drops of each in about 1oz of carrier oil. Best of luck!

Hi Tash, I’m finding so much helpful information here! What a great find I’ve stumbled upon. Thank you! I have a question about the Neroli essential oil in one of the serums. Is there anything to substitute for it? It’s an expensive oil, that I’m not sure I would have other uses for. I’m looking forward o trying your routine here out on my skin. I have never had clear skin, and I’m in my early 40’s still struggling with it. Thanks!

The neroli in this recipe is for oil control. The good news is, geranium is also used for that purpose so you can actually just leave out the neroli if you don’t have it and keep the number of drops used for the geranium the same 🙂

Amazing advice! I’ve had acne since I first became a teen and It’s plagued me ever since! Hopefully, now I might find some relief. Every time I try to use those chemical treatments, it only makes it worse.
So thank you very much 🙂

Hey Tash,
I have wanted to try essential oils for hormonal acne for a long time, and your post gave me the plan I needed to start. I have a couple questions, after the two weeks are up for the first couple of recipes, do you continue using them and add the next level of treatment? Or do you stop using them after two weeks and switch to the next step? I was wondering about this for all three phases of your plan.
I read a different blog that ACV breaks down the chemical components of essential oils and makes them dangerous for skin care, but I couldn’t find anyone else who shared that opinion. Have you ever had a problem combining ACV and essential oils?
Also, my sister and I are still in our late teens, is there anything we should be especially careful with when using essential oils?

For each phase you switch to the new oils 🙂 Keep track of your skin’s condition to see what it likes because you can actually just continue using the essential oils that worked the best after the 3 phases are over. I hope that makes sense!

Also, I haven’t heard about the ACV thing. Very interesting! I will need to do a bit more research on the topic. For now, I have not personally experienced any adverse effects while using both essential oils and apple cider vinegar.

I have looked through the oils in this article and don’t see any particular oils that will cause your hormones to go out of whack for your age. The ones you would want to look out for would be sage and clary sage.

I dunno if it was hormones, but my skin has been horrible for years until I started using essential oils to fight acne. It’s been a few months now and not only have my pimples gone away, so have the blemishes and scars are starting to look faded too. I also haven’t been getting any new pimples either.

Hi Tash, thanks so much for the info! I just had a quick question, I noticed the last item for ongoing daytime treatment has bergamot but wasn’t that one of the most phototoxic oils in your other post? Am I getting it wrong or is there a different oil I should use that won’t react badly with the sun? Thank you!